Nature and Art, June 1, 1866.] 
THE BREED OF HORSES IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 
11 
centuries the world has practised acclimatization without 
knowing it ; and France, guided simply by the instincts of 
her civilizing genius, entered on the road before Science had 
set up the landmarks and indicated the limits. Now that 
she is supplied by you with a methodic itinerary, her course 
will be at once more sure and more rapid.” 
In addition to the ordinary medals and rewards granted 
by the society, annually, in the various sections of zoology 
and horticulture, amounting to more than fifty, and the list 
of which included as recipients several foreigners — Austrian, 
Russian, Caucasian, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, 
Egyptian, and Tunisian, colonists of Mauritius, Bourbon, 
and Sumatra, an Australian named Youl, and an Anglo- 
Indian, Mr. R. C. Beavan — some important extraordinary 
prizes were awarded this year. The sum of 800 francs was 
awarded to M. Jacquemart, of Quessy, in the Aisne, for the 
breeding and applying to labour the offspring of the yak and 
the French mountain-cow, capable of carrying loads up steep 
inclines. A prize of 1,500 francs was given to M. Enriat 
Perrin, of Roville, in the Meurthe, for breeding twelve or 
more Angora goats, pure blood, with fleece equal to a stan- 
dard type. A first prize of 1,200 francs to M. Frederic 
Lequin, of the farm school of Lahayevaux, in the Yosges, for 
twelve three-quarter-bred Angoras under like conditions; and 
a second prize of 800 francs to M. Fabre, director of another 
farm school, that of Vaucluse, at Saint Privat. Medals, of 
the respective values of 300 and 200 francs, were awarded 
for memoirs treating of the breeding of Japanese silkworms 
in France during the past year. 
Amongst the latest acquisitions of the society are a beau- 
tiful female onagre, or wild ass of the Soudan, with a young 
foal ; a young- guepard or hunting leopard, perfectly tame, 
and fondling its keepers like a cat : and three larvrn of the 
leaf -insect or leaf-fly, which resembles in such an extraor- 
dinary manner the leaf upon which it lives and feeds. These 
curious grasshoppers, for they belong to that family, are 
from the Seychelles Islands. 
The acclimatization of the ostrich has been and still is 
one of the pet ideas of the society, and considerable success 
seems to have attended its endeavours ; young birds have 
been born in the domestic state at Grenoble, in the Zoological 
Gardens of Marseilles, and in Algeria. It is not supposed 
that the ostrich will ever flourish in the colder parts of 
France, but there seems no reason why they should not suc- 
ceed in the warm parts, such as Languedoc and Provence ; 
as regards this, it is said, and apparently with reason, that 
the bird might become as completely domesticated as ordi- 
nary poultry, and that there is no reason why it should not 
be bred largely, not only for the sake of its feathers, but 
also for its eggs and flesh. The Paris Society has just 
received an ostrich fifteen months old, born at Grenoble, and 
four others born in the Jardin d’Acclimatation of Algiers. 
The society received, during the past year, twenty-five 
parcels of seeds, of 118 different kinds, from America, the 
Cape of Good Hope, India, China, Australia, the Canary 
Islands, Abyssinia, Senegal, and Algeria, and distributed 
them amongst more than a hundred societies and private 
individuals who applied for them. The garden of the society 
in the Bois de Boulogne is now putting on its most attractive 
appearance, and is becoming one of the most favourite 
resorts in the neighbourhood of Paris for all who love 
natural history, and can be interested without music, singing, 
or dancing. 
It will not be out of place here to mention a great im- 
provement which has been introduced of late in the Jardin 
des Plantes with respect to the larger savage animals. A 
very fine maneless lion may now be seen in comparative 
liberty, pacing or bounding about within his own railed 
garden, as large as a moderate-sized room, and exhibiting 
his beautiful proportions and wondrous agility in a manner 
scarcely ever before seen in Europe ; the creature has a 
house within which he can shelter himself when he pleases, 
with a small terrace in front of it, which serves admirably 
as a pedestal for his form, whenever his restless nature 
permits the creature to stand still there for a moment. We 
saw a team of horses pass in front of the lion’s garden, and 
the intense excitement expressed in the face and the atti- 
tudes and movements of the king of the forest, would have 
furnished an animal-painter with an admirable study. A 
lioness and a wild boar occupy another detached cottage and 
small garden, much smaller than that of the lion, and keep 
a little dog, who seems on the best of terms with both his 
hosts, and inclined to bully them rather than otherwise. 
The old Jardin had fallen into a somewhat neglected con- 
dition, and it is pleasant to see such a proof of vitality and 
desire of improvement in the management. 
THE BREED OF HORSES IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 
T HE triumphs of Fille de VAir and Gladiatem are not 
likely to be forgotten for some time on either side of 
the Channel : the facts are beyond question, but the best 
judges are probably anything but unanimous as to the 
causes. M. Houel, honorary Inspector-General of the 
Imperial Haras, has just published a brochure, in which he 
not only records the fact of England’s defeat, but tells the 
world what, in his opinion, were the reasons why we were 
beaten, and ought to have been beaten. 
In the first place, M. Houel says that there is only one 
province in France fit to breed what he designates the 
“ pure Western race of horses,” and that province is Nor- 
mandy, which is only, he avers, a part of England cut off 
by a convulsion of nature. The first horses of the past year, 
Gladiatetvr, Gontrcm, and Mamda/rin, were not only born 
in Normandy, but nearly all their sires and dams were 
Norman ; Fille de VAir is descended from three mares born 
in Normandy ; Palestro, as well as his father and mother, 
were Norman ; and the two most famous French horses, 
Fitz-Gladiator and Monarque, are both Norman. As breed- 
ing-places, M. Houel places England and Normandy on a 
par, and there is the same equality, he says, in the matter of 
education and training : the methods being alike, and the 
greater part of the trainers and jockeys being English. 
The principal cause of the rapid progress of the French 
racers, and of the success which they have achieved is, 
according to M. Houel, the excellence of the method which 
has been followed by the administration of the Imperial 
Haras, and also by private breeders, in the choice of breed- 
ing horses. He says that with us racing has become a 
mere game, and a speculation in which the improvement of 
the horse is much less considered than the ojaportunity of 
betting, and that animals have been chosen with far more 
regard to fleetness than to conformation. Speed, he says, 
when cultivated alone, may lead to strange abuses, and in 
the end produce an animal that can scarcely put one leg 
before the other. It is impossible to hide the fact, says M. 
Houel, that in consequence of the exaggerated importance 
attached to speed, the breeding types have of late years 
become notably inferior in England ; the wise precept 
established by the English themselves, that three things 
are necessary, “ Blood, speed, and beauty of form,” has 
been too much neglected. If, he argues, either of these 
must be sacrificed, it should certainly be the second. 
France, we are told, has followed a totally opposite 
course to that of England in the purchase of breeding 
stock ; the administration has always given the prefer- 
ence to those exhibiting the most beautiful conformation, 
and, above all, perfectly free from blemish. The Fmperor, 
sire of Monoyrqne, and gramdsire on the male side of 
Gladiateur, was, according to M. Houel, the most perfect 
horse with respect to conformation that it was possible to 
